Children’s Work Adult Work

I have worked with children most of my adult life. I began as a parent educator in my early 30’s, working under the umbrella of a rural college program. While working as a clinic manager during that time, I built my own professional presence by way of constant workshops through the college. This effort prepared me for work in an alternative school and in a Montessori program, focusing more and more on the 2 through 6 year olds. Those tasks gave me a strong foundation in childhood development early in my career. I have often found that in master level psychology interns, this core underpinning is often absent.

I graduated from Antioch University, Seattle, Washington with a degree in psychology. My internship while in this program carried me more and more deeply into depth work with children. And when we work with children, we are often working with referrals from schools and child-focused community agencies who refer children because of their behaviors. Since I had been trained as a sexual assault advocate with its clusters of disturbances in children, I found myself quickly working with trauma. The combinations of sexual assault and child development put me ahead of what was being addressed in working with children.

During the 90’s, I continued to work at a non-profit, where I learned grant writing, supervision skills, and directorship skills. By the time 1999 came, I had the skills in place to open a children’s non-profit therapy agency, Jumping Mouse Children’s Center, and to focus its impact on children ages 2½ through 12. This agency, named after a Lakota Indian teaching legend, started in my home. It became too large to fit into my own private practice and in 2004 we moved to a remodeled home near to the grade school and to Head Start. Many times what this agency needed seemed to simply show up. My understanding has been that when working with the very young, one has the access to those children’s faith and hope in others. This spiritual dynamic has guided the impressive growth and sustainability of Jumping Mouse. 

I retired from directorship and supervision there in 2018. I had trained more than 80 master level interns from the Northwest region. I continue to work as a consultant and a children’s mental health supervisor, mentoring others in the model of depth and relationship, and the tools that accompany this focus.

I have taught classes and workshops in several of the universities here in the Northwest, including Antioch University and Seattle University. I have been a spokesperson in behalf of children’s work on numerous occasions. Directing a non-profit whose core vision was not behaviorally defined acted as a tuning fork to get my own message ‘tuned up’ in its accessibility. 

In working with adults, I have been trained in Jungian analysis, in sexual assault and trauma, and in attachment across the lifespan. Throughout my career some groups I have facilitated include women’s empowerment groups, body awareness, parenting groups, and teacher consultation groups. I have facilitated dream groups, and have worked in Jungian-based depth psychotherapy for over 35 years. Most valuable have been the use of dreams, sandtray, art, and imagination. These efforts and learnings came together in understanding children as human beings whose stories form from their intimate relationships. Those bonds are the templates that guide the very young in their own attempts at intimacy and mutual trust.